jamus-se's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pico's Cousin]

Getting there...

Hey, it's a good start. True homage to Pico's School. Take your time on your next project, refine some elements, and you'll get yourself a smashing hit next time.

I agree with some comments about the guns, the candy, and the IR security - I admit, the IR security is a smart quirk, but casual flash viewers usually don't know about the right-click/zoom in option. Perhaps if one of your post-its has some hints about right clicking... it should help.

Giving the player more freedoms to move around helps too. I like to see places that are not part of the story- shooting things randomly is a nice touch; if the candy store is not an essential part of the story, it would have been a fun addition. Or, if you shoot out the lights in a room and later your enemy has a disadvantage because you blew out the lights earlier (or similar things), it would have been great.

My greatest gripes would have to be sound effects- a lot of essential sounds are missing from the game, it shows especially around the credits, when it's just absolute silence. Hint: download tons of game demos. Especially ones from cheap ass companies that you've never heard of.

Still, kudos, man. This game really captured the pico spirit.

Magna responds:

Holy shit! That was very constructive! I'll definitley use some of those tips.
And i'm glad you think i captured the spirit... but did i reeally deserve the 6?

[Stardust]

......

So much good materials, and not enough content to show it.

Tracing drawings like those are pretty tire-some and labor intensive; I can well imagine most of the production time going into that part of the game. Sadly, the eye candy warps from one to the other in a matter of seconds, leaving some well paid effort unnoticed.

Of course, a more sensible story would be nice. But you alredy know that, right?

The music are rather chaotic... they cut in from mid-song and cut out in mid-song. If you're going to start the sound track midway through, try employing some fade-in techniques.

The clean layout, the short combat sequence, and the overall presentation of the game all shows that you have a lot of potential to create something really great. Now that you've had a first taste of success, just sit back, and take your time on your next project.

I am more than willing to collaborate if you need some programming help, by the way.

Wiesi-Mausland responds:

hey thanks alot for your suggestions!
i played your ronin game and its just incredible! i really hope you´re making a sequel of ronin or a different game as ingenious as ronin.. who knows.
if i´m in need of programming-help i´ll let you know! thanks dude!

[Gutz - Level 1]

Getting there...

The game feels really (almost exactly like) Tsunami. I understand that you changed the textures and such, but even the level layout seems too similar to Tsunami.

The blood looks a little excessive - There's obviously the reused splatter image, but you painted over those images with a different color, making your strokes visible as they fade out. I'd recommend taking the extra paint and half of your splatters out - there's a line between excessive violence and pointlessly excessive violence.

Nonetheless, if you can keep the story consistent, after the full game is complete it'll be something for you to be remembered with.

Best of luck.

[Spindle: Character Beta]

Getting there...

The basic engine seems to be doing well. Most of my recommendations will come in the form of game tweeks.

In the traditional fighting game the player usually has a better vertical reach while the computer enemies has a better horizontal reach (see: Angry Domo-Kun Smash Fest FAQ). I don't feel that this is present in the game; but of course it'll be up to you to decide if you want to stick with the classics or try something innovative.

It's most probably because you're placing dark characters in a deep blue background, but the animation cels are hard to tell apart - and some people may get frustrated to memorize combos involving 6-7 keys. I would recommend breaking it down to a combination of two smaller sets (i.e. there'd be two sets, AAA and SAS, then you'd have combinations of AAAAAA, SASAAA, SASSAS, etc.) It's easier to remember combinations that way.

It's a bad idea to have AIs all gang up on the player, although that's what happens in real life. Have some idle states for the AI so some would stand around for a bit before attacking, and some would walk away then run back and tackle, etc. You can also consider having some enemies intentionally moving around the player toward his back too, for more variety and challenge.

Try punching random objects in the house, record them and amplify the sound. You'll be surprised at the interesting sound effects that you'd get.

I'm a little worried about the frame rate though - your characters might be a little too detailed, especially the enemy characters. When it starts to lag with 4 characters and no background, you should start worrying about the frame rate...

Best of luck. It's looking good.

AngryBinary responds:

That's some great feedback, tho I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to AI and framerate. The more complex I made the AI, the fewer characters I could fit on screen before it started lagging, even after some pretty clever workarounds to offset different characters' scripts to keep them from running concurrently. Flash is very sluggish with processing game-style code. So, I just made the enemies tougher and more aggressive, with the idea of only having 2 or 3 on screen at once.

Good idea with the sound FX, i've been punching alot of things around the house since i've started making this, now i guess i should just put a mic on it.

[Defend Your Castle !]

Front Page Worthy...

After seeing a few uninteresting videos from the front page, I've decided to check the portal and I found this cool game. This is by far one of the most original game in a long time that kept me going for hours to no end. NG should really pay more attention to games like these... Oh, it wouldn't hurt to make the archer's arrows more visible though, you don't have to draw them hit the invaders, just seeing a rain of arrows is good enough for me :D

[Assault Part-5]

Yup, should have been a movie.

Just because there's clicking doesn't make it a game, and in all honesty, peeps on NG likes to diss games more than movies, so it's probably an advantage to make future installments movies.

The ticking bomb is really an over-used guessing game... it's annoying as hell and actually takes the enjoyment OUT of the movie. But if there has to be more bombs in the future, maybe some readable hints (instead of blinking lights) would help a little.

There's a lot of mystery meat navigation before the movie starts... it'd really help to at least say "play this movie" instead of just having a blue triangle button.

This has been the best stick animation I've seen in awhile. Let's hope that the next one will be even better.

[Bad Ass MoFro]

I'm not laughing...

What this game had in potential was killed entirely by its insane difficulty; the walking speed and jumping speed is so low compared to the bullet flying speed that it's impossible to avoid bullets; there are zero clue as to where key objects are located and in between the frustration of not being able to shoot anything (and having my missile disappear into nowhere even when I get to shoot) and dying out of inevitibility and not from my own mistake, the game becomes completely frustrating and I simply gave up on it. Consider having a friend who have not played the game during it production play-test it, so that balancing mistakes like this would not happen again.

[Pencak Silat 2.1]

I have no honor!

Finally, a fighting game that plays like a fighting game... as in, the player can move around! Excellent graphics and animations, responsive interface, and best of all... I pretty much *cheated* my way out of fights with poison darts and lethal daggers. I am so cheap! I have no honor! The only two gripes that I have with the game is that the fight still seems kind of random, with the parry animation being so slow and all; and that the animation doesn't connect sometimes, where a character would zoom back a few pace from a walk position to an attack position. But anyway, congrats, best of luck to your votes and reviews!

[Clock Slots]

Buggy project from a buggy book...

I've took a glance of the book that you're talking about when I was jogging around Barnes and Noble. Poo~Ehh! Do that book reek of bugs when it comes to game programming!

Obvious bugs in this one: you can keep pulling the lever even when the pictures are spinning, thus losing extra money for no particular reason.

That book might be good as a starter, but if you want to do something great, you'll have to pick up the skills from someone else/some other book.

The 5 belongs to the book. It sucks!